A Forum for Orthodox Jewish thought on Halacha, Hashkafa, and the social issues of our time.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Every Jew – a 22?

I have not yet addressed the horrific tragedy that struck
our nation a little over week ago in Newtown, Connecticut. The truth is that this
is the kind of thing that I do not usually discuss since it is not a Jewish issue.
Even though there was one Jewish victim, the tragedy is much larger than one
victim.

But the fact is that the
issues raised by this tragedy affects us all – Jew and Gentile alike.

On Friday morning, December 14th 27 people were massacred at the Newtown’s Sandy Hook Elementary
School by Adam Lanza, a mentally ill 20 year old with easy access to 4 semi
automatic weapons. 20 of the victims were very young children and at least two
of the adults, one a teacher and the other the school principal were murdered
while attempting to shield children from the hail of bullets.

Like just about everyone else I was stunned by it. I could
not imagine the sudden grief that parents, friends, and families must have felt. The
idea that a group of 6 year old children were so quickly massacred in this way is
unimaginable. So terrible is this to me this that my mind is mentally blocked
from putting myself into the shoes of those parents. I think I would have a
mental breakdown if I did. I was basically numbed by it. The President was visibly
moved to tears when he first made public comments about it.

My immediate thoughts were about the guns. I thought it was
indeed the easy access to guns that was the problem here. Those guns were
legally obtained by Lanza’s mother, an avid gun enthusiast. Unfortunately for
her, that attitude cost her her life at the hands of her own son just before he
went on his killing rampage and suicide. The state of Connecticut is reputed to
have some of the strictest gun laws in the country. It didn’t matter. The guns
were there at the disposal of a mentally deranged individual.

Personally I wouldn’t go anywhere near a gun. Guns scare me, frankly. To me the
dangers of someone getting accidentally shot far outweigh the improbability of
my using it for protection. Which would be the only reason for me to own one. I am reminded of a
former employee of mine whose son was killed by a gun carelessly placed on a
table in her home by a friend who was police trainee. The boy found it, started
playing with it and he accidentally shot himself in the head.

I believe that the massacre in Newton
would never have happened if guns were made illegal.

It happens to be the case that in England gun ownership is very strictly controlled. If I understand correctly the police don’t even carry guns. It also happens to be the case that the gun homicide rate there is one of the lowest
in the world. If we could do the same here in America, this massacre would very likely never have
happened.

The trouble is you can’t do that here. It is a constitutional right of every American
citizen to bear arms. And there is some truth to the slogan of gun rights
advocates that if guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns. It is
therefore quite understandable that some people feel the need to own a gun for
protection.

If I recall correctly the founding fathers believed that confiscating
guns from the citizenry was a first step towards tyranny. Which is one reason
they introduced the 2nd amendment. But is that still the case? In my
view making all guns illegal would be a huge step towards solving this problem.
But the only way that can be done is to repeal the second amendment to the
constitution. That is not going to happen. Although using England as an example
I think it should. Will outlaws still have guns? Of course they will. But I
would differ with England in that I would still allow law enforcement to carry
them.

Gun enthusiasts of course would vehemently protest any such
move. They use guns as toys… for target practice and the like. And then there
are hunters. Perhaps an exception could be
made for single shot rifles for hunting purposes. But I would outlaw all
private ownership of all handguns and assault type semi automatic weapons that can
take a large magazine clip filled with bullets. I would certainly outlaw those large ammunition
clips. This is the type of gun and clip used by Lanza to shoot and kill so many
victims so quickly.

But then I had another thought that went in an entirely different
direction. I couldn’t help thinking that if the principal who had encountered
him at the beginning of his shooting rampage had a gun with a conceal/carry
permit, was well trained and proficient with firearms - that she could have
shot Lanza before he did so much damage. I don’t know if she would have gotten
to him before he killed anyone. But she surely could have saved many of those
children and herself. Lest anyone think this is ridiculous, there are schools in
Texas where all or most of the teachers are trained in firearms and carry weapons.

But I have to admit that the thought of a teacher who carries
a gun in the classroom teaching my child is
a scary thought. Teachers can be – or become - deranged too. With a gun
at the ready, there could just as easily be another shooting of this type. Only this time by a deranged teacher.

Then there is the proposal by the NRA. They want to station
armed police guards in every school. While many people are outraged by this, I
don’t see it that way. If properly trained they too could have prevented the
NewTown massacre had they been there.

The NRA points to Israeli schools who have this exact
situation. Israel as we all know has been frequently subjected to terrorist attacks by suicide
bombers. I don’t blame them a bit for protecting their schools in this way.

It
would put my mind at greater ease to
know that Israeli trained sharpshooters were on alert in my child’s
school for any terrorist that might enter. Israel’s attitude about guns is more
along the lines of the NRA. It is also true that a civilian carrying a handgun is a fairly common
sight there. I also believe there has never been an incident like this in Israel’s
history… where in the US it seems like every Monday and Thursday we see one.

Are armed guards a viable option here in America? I don’t
know. Counter claims are being made that it would be ineffective. Columbine had an armed guard that was somehow
eluded and students were massacred there by other students.

But still you can’t argue with the success of such a program
in Israel. I think it is therefore really a matter of better training.
Something the Israelis could help us with.

What about a Jewish school? Should we have armed guards in
every day school? That would make quite a sight… something we are all not used
to here at all. Or maybe we should all carry guns the way Meir Kahane once suggested.
He coined the phrase “Every Jew – 22”. 22 is the caliber handgun he suggested
we own. He claimed that had the Jewish people had guns at the beginning
of the Holocaust they could have fight back effectively.

That of course is very debatable. It may have made the annihilation
of 6 million Jews more difficult - but I doubt it would have done anything more
than delay it.

Rabbi Kahane said that a Holocaust could happen anywhere; anytime.
And we should be ready for it by having our own weapons. That is of course ridiculous.
But I understand where he was coming from. He did not want to see us to go like
sheep to the slaughter – which is what happens when an armed tyrannical government starts rounding up its unarmed
citizens like Germany did to the Jewish people during the Holocaust.

But still, if every Jew carried a handgun – that would
include every teacher and Rebbe. That would surely prevent the kind of massacre
that happened in Newtown.

Does this sound like a viable idea to anyone?

Some have also suggested that the real issue here is mental
illness, not handguns. While I agree - that too is an issue that ought to be
addressed here, I don’t think that mental Illness will be cured anytime soon.
No matter how much time and energy we devote to it. Although I fully agree that
we need to devote a lot more time and money to it than we do now it does not offer
any real solutions in the short term.

One thing seems clear to me. One way or the other something needs
to change here in a big way. Because if it doesn’t. We may not have seen the
last of this kind of thing.

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About Me

My outlook on Judaism is based mostly on the teachings of my primary Rebbe, Rabbi Aaron Soloveichik from whom I received my rabbinic ordination. It is also based on a search for spiritual truth. Among the various sources that put me on the right path, two great philosophic works stand out: “Halakhic Man” and “Lonely Man of Faith” authored by the pre-eminent Jewish philosopher and theologian, Rabbi, Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Of great significance is Rabbi, Dr. Norman Lamm's conceptualization and models of Torah U’Mada and Dr. Eliezer Berkovits who introduced me to the world of philosophic thought. Among my early influences were two pioneers of American Elementary Torah Chinuch, Rabbis Shmuel Kaufman and Yaakov Levi. The Yeshivos I attended were Yeshivas Telshe for early high school and more significantly, the Hebrew Theological College where for a period of ten years, my Rebbeim included such great Rabbinic figures as Rabbis Mordechai Rogov, Shmaryahu Meltzer, Yaakov Perlow, Herzl Kaplan, and Selig Starr. I also attended Roosevelt University where I received my Bachelor's Degree - majoring in Psychology.